Tuesday January 17, 2012 we will be hosting an Open House from 6-11pm. Admission is free, so come check out what TechWorks is all about. Chat with current members, see some of the cool projects, get some free munchies, maybe take Goliath for a spin… Find out why TechWorks might be a good place for you!

We are located in Studio D of the Two Twenty (220 20th St W). See you there!

We realize this is fairly short notice but tomorrow (Sunday, December 11th) there will be a few of us down at the space playing board games, likely starting around noon. Everyone is welcome to stop by!

Our next monthly meeting is next Wednesday, Dec 14th at 7pm in our secret basement laboratory (Studio D, 220 20th St W). Note that this is not on the usual 2nd Tuesday of the month, since many of our members can’t make that date. If the new date causes problems for anyone please let us know ASAP!

I have been working on an android app that allows you to control Ryan’s CNC router (“Goliath”) directly via touch. After a few iterations, I’ve got an app that I’m quite happy with. It supports circles, rectangles, lines as well as freehand. The app also lets you specify your cut area and cut depth on the fly (check out Tic Tac Toe take 2 for a good example of why defining cut area on the fly is useful). Check out the forum thread that describes the app in more detail.

We’ve gone ahead and created a YouTube account which we’ll use to host all Techworks related videos. There are only a few up there now but there are lots more to come, subscribe now! http://www.youtube.com/sktechworks

Yes, analog games! Board games, card games, whatever. We’ll have a big stack of games on hand, but feel free to bring your favourites. Sunday, November 27th, starting noonish. As usual, all are welcome to join us.

I want to give a huge thank you to Robert at GRZ Software LLC. He has graciously donated a license to Saskatoon TechWorks Inc for his awesome CAM software “MeshCAM“. It’s the bridge between your 3-D CAD file and the CNC Router. I’ve used this program in the past and it is extremely powerful yet easy to wrap your brain around. Even better, it’s the “MeshCAM Art” version which can take images as the input so you don’t need to know how to use CAD programs at all!

Robert even threw in a license for “CutViewer CNC Simulator“. This lets you run a virtual cutting process and see what the finished piece will look like before cutting (it’s never quite as you drew it thanks to round cutting tools, inside corners, etc), and see if your program is going to break a bit before it happens!

Please check out the linked websites for more info on both programs. We will be hosting a workshop/tutorial on them and if you or your employer have a need for some CAM software you should definitely consider MeshCAM.

It’s that time again! Our next monthly meeting will be held on November 8th in our secret basement lab (Studio D, 220 20th St W). Everyone is welcome, so come on down and check us out if you’re curious.